Last week I presented “Selected Squared” to a group of managers in an organization of nearly 1,000 employees. Click here to view the original post that contains the Select Squared slidedeck.

At every level in outstanding organizations, leaders and employees embrace a spirit of service to others that is reflected in their behaviors. Here’s what I mean.

When I started my business a few years ago, I had the privilege of working with a startup community bank here in Lynchburg – Select Bank (for whom Select Squared was coined). Wayne Carpenter, their CEO at the time, exemplified the idea of leader as servant more than any other person I’ve met in the entirety of my professional career. In every interaction I observed Wayne had with others, he:

• Employed great listening skills
• Treated people with respect
• Gave encouragement
• Appreciated people
• Was committed to the success of others

Wayne served others through his behaviors.

Today, that same leader servant spirit continues at Select Bank in CEO J. Michael Thomas. Mike cares about his people, an idea that is demonstrated through sacrifice.

Last winter when the Select Bank building was completed, I stopped in for a visit. To my surprise, Mike was not in the corner office, nor any of the picturesque spaces overlooking the duck pond. Instead, he chose to make his office in the middle of the building, in a space with a less than awe-inspiring view. Immediately I knew this was an indication of leader who serves, rather than one who expects to be served. (As I type these words, I remember what Jesus said in Mark 10:45.)

That day I was reminded of Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, who makes his office in the middle of a cube farm. Watch a snippet of the Zappos story on Oprah.

Now, take a moment and think of outstanding organizations that consistently deliver excellent service. Have one or two in mind? Wouldn’t you agree that leaders and employees in those organizations fully embrace the idea of Servant Spirit through their behaviors and their sacrifice? I’m pretty sure those leader servants would never toot their own horns.

Why not toot for them? Tell me more about those folks and about your positive experiences with leader servants in the comments section below.

(Creative Commons photo Mother Theresa by Kevin Van Lierop.)

Can you fill in the blanks for each of the following?

• S______________ S______________
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• L______________ L______________
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• C______________ C______________
• T______________ T______________

Leave your guesses in the comments section. I’ll share the details on the next few posts.

(If you’ve participated in this session before, no guessing allowed. Instead, why not comment about your favorite part of the presentation?)

Late last night Twitter made a huge promise on their blog. With the opening of Apple’s 2008 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) and Steve Jobs’ highly anticipated keynote address, (and possible new iphone announcement), Twitter is expecting ten times the traffic today on their site. Given the fact that Twitter has had dramatic downtime over the last few months, they’ve “made some plans to accommodate this dramatic surge.”

They’ve also set some pretty high expectations for reliability in the minds of users across the twitterverse. Time will tell if they have under promised and can over deliver. Or if the reverse is true. I hope they can pull it off!

I have really come to value Twitter as a business resource. I can’t say that I’ve come to “rely” on it completely, due to the aforementioned downtime. But I really want to!

When is the last time you were pleasantly surprised by customer service? How do your customers want you to succeed? Have you set the bar too high for your own organization and left your customers with unrealistic expectations of your ability to deliver?